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Ontario mayor takes on 'Buy American' policy

By Allison JonesTHE CANADIAN PRESS

Tues., Oct. 6, 2009

The mayor of al northern Ontario city is fighting Buy American policy with a David-and-Goliath approach, but bypassing Goliath and appealing directly to his U.S. counterparts on a local level to drop the contentious provision.

North Bay, Ont., mayor Victor Fedeli has sent letters to the mayors of three U.S. cities where North Bay made large purchases recently, imploring them to think about the effect on their community if Canada succumbed to protectionism.

North Bay Mayor Victor Fedeli poses in a U.S.-purchased fire truck in North Bay, Ont., Sunday, Oct.4, 2009. (THE CANADIAN PRESS)

In a letter sent to the mayor of DeKalb, Ill., Fedeli notes the $1-million water reservoir North Bay bought from a company in DeKalb, a community of about 46,000. If Canada had a Buy Canadian policy the order would not have been received by that company, an important employer in their community, and it may have been forced to lay people off, Fedeli said.

The Buy American provisions that were included in the US$787-billion economic stimulus bill that Congress passed in February favour U.S.-made manufactured goods in government-funded building projects.

News reports recently suggested a deal was imminent to exempt Canada from the clauses that exclude Canadian suppliers from bidding on those projects. Officials on both sides of the border denied the reports.

Fedeli's other two letters were sent to the mayor of Brandon, S.D., where North Bay bought two fire trucks this year from a company there for $850,000 and the mayor of Cortland, N.Y., where North Bay recently bought a membrane filtration system from a company there for $6.3 million.

These are the kinds of day-to-day, local considerations that must be considered in the overall policy, Fedeli said.

"It's easy as a high-level government, a federal government, to unilaterally make these rules, but when you're where the rubber meets the road, you understand the consequences of them," he said in an interview.

"We (municipalities) don't get invited to discuss a lot of these things, we just pay the price at the end of the day."

Canada and the United States are discussing the possibility of trade deals between the states and provinces to get around the damaging Buy American policy, David Jacobson, the new U.S. ambassador to Canada, has said.

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Carleton University public policy professor Stephen Harris said he's "pleasantly surprised" the Americans are prepared to discuss the policy, but said he's skeptical North Bay and the small American communities to which it is appealing have any leverage in the matter.

"When you watch the discourse on policy in America it's hard to imagine that these efforts by North Bay are going to have any real measurable effect," Harris said.

"The two mayors may get together and empathize with one another, but this is a big issue. It's a big issue in Congress and that's where it's going to get resolved."

The Federation of Canadian Municipalities has also taken on the Buy American issue, but with a different approach. The federation passed a resolution in June to boycott U.S. suppliers if the country didn't back down on Buy American provisions within 120 days.

The federation announced Saturday it is withdrawing the threat for now, but not taking it off the table entirely.

Fedeli said he is not a big believer in retaliation, instead putting stock in his personal approach.

Fedeli knows he will face criticism for not buying products made locally or elsewhere in Canada, but he is ready with a three-pronged reply.

For one, not everything is made in Canada, he said. Secondly, seeking the best bid from companies in North America and not just Canada ensures better value for the taxpayer, Fedeli said. Also insisting on buying Canadian becomes protectionism and then nobody wins, he said.

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